intrepidity, and spent their plunder with the most profuse extravagance, were very welcome guests in Jamaica. They frequently brought two, three, and four hundred thousand pieces of eight at a time, which were immediately squandered in all the ways of gaming and luxurious living. Vast fortunes were made, and the returns of treasure to England were prodigiously great. The inhabitants of the island had by this means raised such funds, that when the source of their wealth was stopped up by the suppression of the pirates, they were enabled to turn their industry into better channels.

old customs and habits to abandon them entirely; and hence sprung a race of pirates who obtained the name of Buccaneers. These did not consist altogether of the inhabitants of Jamaica; but were adventurers from all nations, and resorted chiefly to Jamaica, on account of its convenient situation for plundering the Spaniards. Barbadoes and other islands furnished their quota for this desperate socie→ ty; and when they assembled, they bound themselves to certain regulations that would not have disgraced a more virtuous institution. At first they satisfied themselves with taking their ships and destroying their trade; but encouraged by this success they landed upon the continent of New Spain and Terra-Firma, burning and plundering the open country. Confidence increasing with success, they assaulted and captured some of the strongest fortresses and most opulent towns; they even took the city of Panama by storm, and burned it, after defeating an army which came to beat them off. Another party of these pirates passed the straits of Magellan, and entering into the South Sea, turned the whole coast of Peru, Chili, and the east of Mexico, into one scene of desolation; every where attended with success, because they were acting every where with a bravery and conduct, that in any other cause had merited the highest honours.

The pirates whom we call Buccaneers, the French denominated Flibusteers, from the Dutch fly-boats in which VOL. XXIV.

2 F

People of all professions, and from all parts of the British dominions, now resorted to Jamaica, and the confusion which overspread England after the death of Cromwell impelled many to seek for safety and repose in the plantations. Some of those who had distinguished themselves by their activity in bringing the unfortunate monarch to the scaffold, considered Jamaica as a sure place of refuge. But although persons of this stamp were silently permitted to fix themselves in the island, yet the general body of the people participated in the joy which was shown on the king's return.

The restored monarch made no inquiries after those who had been active in his father's humiliation and death; he even appointed their favourite ge

they made their first expeditions. Buccaneers are in fact no more than persons who hunt wild cattle in America for their hides and tallow. Some of these joined the Flibusteers in their first expedition; and from them the whole body was named Buccaneers. To these two sorts of people were soon added some of the French in the Lesser Antilles; who, finding how much might be made by supplying people that expended largely, and that were not very exact in their bargains, and perceiving that no part of America afforded a better soil, passed over to this island, in which they exercised their business of planters and merchants. These three sorts of people, mutually in want of each other, lived in good harmony. When a Spanish war broke out, the Buccaneers were furnished by the English with regular letters of marque and reprisal. After the restoration of Charles II. the king gave orders that they should receive every encouragement and protection; and it is said on pretty good authority, that his majesty did not disdain to become a partner in the buccaneering business. About the year 1680 every measure was taken to suppress these pirates, and in two years after, the most celebrated of the English Buccaneers, sir Henry Morgan, who had been knighted for his eminent services in the bu siness, was seized and sent prisoner to England.

A. D. 1661.

neral D'Oyley to be chief governor of the island. This memorable appointment, with a council elected by the people, may be considered as the first establishment of a regular civil government in Jamaica, after the English had become masters of it. It was also resolved, for the encouragement of those who should be inclined to settle there, "that all the children of the natural born subjects of England, born in Jamaica, shall be free denizens of England; and that all free persons shall have liberty to transport themselves, their families, &c. to the island of Jamaica." The governor was also instructed to call an assembly, to be indifferently chosen by the people at large, that they might pass laws for their own internal regulation and government, with this limitation only, that the laws which they should pass, were not subversive of their dependence on the parent state.

A. D.

1678.

Hitherto the sovereign authority was properly exerted in defence of the just rights of the crown, and in securing to its distant subjects the enjoyment of their possessions; but unhappily Charles II. had neither steadiness nor integrity. A new system of legislation was adopted for this island, by which there was to be a perpetual revenue given to the crown, and in future the heads of all bills (money bills excepted) were to be suggested in the first instance by the governor and council, and transmitted to his majesty to be approved and rejected at home: on obtaining the royal confirmation, they were to be returned under the great seal in the shape of laws, and passed by the general assembly; which was to be convened for no other purpose than that, and the business of voting the usuaļ

supplies, unless in consequence of special orders from England.

What misconduct on the part of the inhabitants, or what secret expectation on the part of the crown, originally gave birth to this project, it is now difficult to determine. The most probable opinion is this. In the year 1663, the assembly of Barbadoes were prevailed on to grant an internal revenue to the crown, of 4 per cent. on the gross exported produce of that island for ever. It is not unlikely that the steady refusal of the Jamaica planters to burthen themselves and their posterity with a similar imposition, first suggested the idea of depriving them of those constitutional franchises, which alone could give security and value to their possessions. The assembly re jected the new constitution with indignation. No threats could intimidate, no bribes could corrupt, nor arts nor arguments persuade them to conent to laws that would enslave their posterity. Colonel Long, one of the principal opposers of this arbitrary measure, was dismissed from his posts and sent home prisoner to England. He was heard, in his own defence, and in defence of the liberties of the island, before the king and council, and he pointed out, with such force of argument, the evil tendency of the measures which had been pursued, that the ministry reluctantly gave up their project.

It might have been hoped that all possible cause of future contest with the crown, on the question of political rights, was now happily obviated; but the event proved that this expectation was fallacious. Although the assembly had recovered the privilege of framing such laws for their internal government as their exigencies might

require, yet the royal confirmation of a great part of them had been constantly refused, and still continued to be withheld. In this unsettled state, the affairs of Jamaica were suffered to remain for the space of fifty years.

The true cause of such inflexibility on the part of the crown was the revenue. For the purpose, as it was pretended, of answering public contingencies, the ministers of Charles II. had procured, as has been observed, from the assembly of Barbadoes, and indeed from most of the British West-India colonies, the grant of a perpetual revenue. The refusal of Jamaica to concur in a similar establishment; the punishment provided for contumacy; and the means of her deliverance, have been stated; but it was found that the lenity of the crown, in relinquishing the system of compulsion, was expected to produce that effect which oppression had failed to accomplish. The English government claimed a return from the people of Jamaica, for having dropt an oppressive and pernicious project, as if it had actually conferred upon them a positive and permanent benefit.

The assembly, however, remained unconvinced. Among other objections, they pleaded that the money granted by Barbadoes was notoriously ap.propriated to purposes widely different from those for which it was expressly given; and they demanded some pledge or security against a similar misapplication, in case they should subject their country to a permanent and irrevocable tax. The ministers refused to give satisfaction in this particular, and finding the assembly equally resolute to pass their supply bills only from year to year, advised the sovereign to wave the confirmation of